


Any Other Way

by leorate



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Sburb/Sgrub Sessions, College AU, F/F, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-09
Updated: 2017-08-09
Packaged: 2018-12-13 08:02:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11755518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leorate/pseuds/leorate
Summary: Jade Harley spent the majority of her life alone, working on her Grandfather's farm on an island in Hawai'i.When she gets a chance to go to college on the mainland with her closest internet friends, she watches them find their soulmates and one by one get the happily ever after she'd always wanted.When she and her soulmate launch a harebrained scheme to find each other, will Jade finally be able to meet the mysterious, cat-loving AC? Because it's beginning to look like she's going to be stuck with a bunch of confused baristas and desperately sick of coffee shops.





	Any Other Way

**Author's Note:**

> This is a little JadeNep Oneshot I wrote for [sun-brushed](http://sun-brushed.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr!! I hope u like it :D

Jade remembered the first time it happened. 

She'd learned about it in school, of course, everyone had. It started for most people around age 10, usually before they were 15, so they needed to know what it meant when marks started showing up on their skin. 

Marks they hadn't made. 

No one knew exactly when or how the phenomenon had begun, but scriptures and hieroglyphs dating back thousands of years depicted it. Any mark you made on your body appeared exactly there on your soul mate, and as it appeared whatever emotions they were feeling would wash over you. People called them ‘soulmarks’. 

For Jade, it was a cat. 

Most often it started out with reminders, people absentmindedly writing on their hands or their arms what appointments they needed to remember, but for Jade it was a doodle.

She was 13 years old the first time she made contact with her soulmate. Her right arm tingled, which was funny enough in itself, that meant her soulmate was left-handed same as she was. The lines, a strange sort of green, etched themselves across her skin deliberately, a wave of intent washed over her. Whoever her soulmate was, they knew what they were doing. Knew somehow that the connection had been forged, knew their drawing would make it through. 

Jade smiled. She drew her dog, Bec, next to the cat.

GG: john!!! youll never believe what just happened!!! :D 

———————

It was a few months until she heard from her soulmate again, and this time she was ready. Sparkly green pen in hand, the memory of a grinning cat looking up at her, this time she made first contact.

hello!

Nothing. She began to worry that she'd scared her soulmate off.

:33< *bats a paw at her soulmate playfully and says hello!* 

Jade blinked. That was...not what she'd been expecting. But she could roll with this.

*wags tail and rolls on back with tummy facing the sky!!!* 

:33< *delicately pads over and gives a cautious sniff before giving the tummy an approving lick!* 

*jumps into a playful position and perks up her ears!!* 

:33< that was pawsitively purrrfect!! do you do a lot of roleplaying? 

A bit relieved to have a chance to actually get to know her soulmate a bit better, Jade dove right in.

nope!! that was my first time hehe, I figured I would go with the flow!! 

:33< well you did great!! um, how do you 

There was a pause as Jade felt the uncertainty flow through her, emotions that weren't hers.

:33< how do you want to do this? 

what do you mean? 

:33< like introduce ourselves! do we want to give names or code names?

hmm, I like code names!! That way we can make it ~mysterious! plus, I dont know if I want to, you know, orchestrate a meeting I guess. I want to meet you the way we were supposed to! 

:33< like, on accident? or ~fate, h33h33 

yeah!!! no names, super secret undercover, we meet all natural!! :D 

:33< okay!!! you can call me arsenicCatnip, or AC! 

ooh alright, you can call me gardenGnostic, or GG! 

AC: :33< *stretches and rubs head against GG affectionately!!* 

Jade fought back a smile, the excitement was palpable both from her own emotions and from the foreign emotions coursing through her veins. 

Throughout her high school years, it would be no small thing to say that she'd been lonely. Growing up on her grandfathers farm on a far corner of Hawai’i, it was easier to take online courses rather than commute to the schools at least 45 minutes away. It was easier, but not better. Her only friends to speak of were her cousin John and their friends Rose and Dave. Much like school, her social circle was all online too. Except for her soulmate of course. Jade’s heart gave a soft flutter just thinking about her. She and AC talked every once in a while, playfully roleplaying across their arms, their legs, onto their stomachs before laughing and washing it all off only to start over once again. 

She learned that her soulmate helped out at animal shelters and had three cats at home, this started a many months long teasing session on both parts as Jade considered herself more of a dog person, but it was all in good fun as both simply loved animals in general. 

She learned that her soulmate’s family was originally from Korea, but that she'd been born and raised in the United States. 

She learned that their favorite color was green, just like hers, she learned that they both loved plants and gardening, and she learned that they were both in the same grade at high school, though Jade was a few months younger. 

That was as much as they could divulge. Neither wanted to spoil the genuine getting to know each other before they met, they were hopelessly romantic and wanted it to be magical and exciting and shocking and a million other things. 

Jade never asked where she went to school, and they never discussed where they were headed for college. She had a niggling regret at the back of her mind as she applied to numerous schools, some nearby, some on the mainland. _What if they were missing their chance to meet? What if they went to schools on opposite ends of the country and never met until they were old?_ But when Jade and her friends all got accepted to the same school on the mainland, some liberal arts place with greenhouses and high tech labs, Jade found she was too excited to worry too much about the situation. She was just so happy to finally be going to a real school with real people, finally able to hang out with her friends and make new ones. Her soulmate just might have to wait. 

Graduation came and went, she received her AP scores and diploma online, and after a summer of packing and preparing she was finally ready to catch a plane to her future. She chuckled at the last thought and how corny it had been, her fingers twitched toward the green pen she always kept tucked somewhere on her person (today it was tucked into her hair) and pushed her glasses up her nose. AC would have thought it was funny and cute, but she was too anxious to make contact now. She always felt slightly guilty bringing up college with AC, they'd never discussed where they were going and there was always a hint of worry or a pang of regret which tinged their messages when the subject came up. Nevertheless, the night before she left, she was suddenly a bundle of nerves. Time to check pesterchum to see who was online.

\-- gardenGnostic [GG] began pestering turntechGodhead [TG] -- 

GG: hi dave!!! pesterchum says youre online, are you really online or did you just leave your laptop open before falling asleep again hehe 

TG: nah im online 

TG: whassup pumpkin bumpkin 

GG: dave!!! just because I grow pumpkins doesnt make me a bumpkin!! 

GG: thats a highly respectable title that i havent earned yet!! 

TG: oh shit you are absolutely right and im a fool 

TG: how could i have forgotten the sacred bumpkin hierarchy 

TG: the hillbilly echeladder 

TG: the uh 

TG: fuck it im tired thats all i got 

GG: hehe i thought it was pretty good!! 

TG: yeah well you have good taste 

TG: was there a reason you wanted to talk at buttfuck o clock before I know you have to get up early to catch a plane 

TG: cold feet 

GG: nope!! my feet are roasty toasty!! its just 

GG: what do you know about your soulmate?? 

TG: oh shit karkat? fuck if you wanted to talk about karkat you shouldve started with that 

TG: what dont i know about that little fucker lmao 

TG: he sucks ass at keeping anything a secret or like having a basic filter or literally any restraint 

TG: we were gonna do that whole “meet naturally” thing but like i said he sucks ass at keeping shit secret so i could probably find him online if i wanted to but im a man of mystery so 

TG: why whats up 

GG: I dont know!! I just feel a little guilty that my soulmate and I wanted to keep everything such a secret :( 

GG: im worried things arent going to work out or we wont get to meet or a billion things could go wrong 

TG: nah 

GG: nah?? 

TG: yeah 

TG: nah 

TG: itll work out man, we all put some huge fucking faith that this weird ass connection means were fated to be together or some shit 

TG: so you gotta trust those same mysterious fucking forces that theyll also kindly shove us in the direction of this soulmate person, you know 

GG: yeah i guess so!! thanks dave!!! 

TG: no problem, but now you gotta go tf to sleep because thats what coolkid strider is about to do 

GG: hehe, alright “coolkid”!! goodnight!! 

\-- turntechGodhead [TG] ceased pestering gardenGnostic [GG] -- 

And much to her relief, Jade did feel a bit better about the whole situation. 

Later that week after Jade and her friends had all unpacked and survived the first few days of living in a new place with new people, she and Rose decided to meet up with John and Dave for lunch. They were rooming together, much the same as Jade and Rose were, and the four had agreed to get together to eat that day in a pub on campus. 

“‘Sup, ladies?” Dave greeted as he and John slid into the booth across from Jade and Rose. 

Rose set her phone down and quirked up a brow expectantly. “You're late, brother dearest.”

John looked abashed, but Jade laughed and waved him off. “Oh please! Rose was texting her soulmate, Kanaya. They met earlier this week in the library and they've been talking nonstop ever since. If anything, she wishes you two had been later so she could have kept talking to her.”

Rose turned slightly pink in the cheeks but offered no resistance on her part. Jade felt a pang go through her. She was undoubtedly happy for Rose, but she longed to meet her soulmate. AC had been settling into college this week too along with some friends of her own and Jade wanted nothing more than to meet her, meet her friends, get to know everything about her. 

“AC applied to some coffee shops on her campus this week,” Jade supplied at the mention of soulmates. “I've been thinking about looking around for some jobs myself, maybe in the greenhouses or as a lab tech!”

“You'd be good at that!” John encouraged. At least there was one person at this table who had no idea who their soulmate was. 

Before anyone else could continue, a short Latino guy approached the table with a scowl on his face that he seemed to be attempting to morph into something friendlier, but with no luck. 

“Welcome to the Blind Prophet’s Pub and Eatery, what can I get for you today?” He asked in a tired tone as if merely looking in the direction of other people was an annoyance. 

His name tag read _Hello! My name is Karkat_. Jade quickly kicked Dave under the table and jerked her head in the server’s direction. 

“Oh shit,” Dave noticed the name tag. “Your name is Karkat? That's my soulmate’s name too, hold up I gotta tell him.”

Jade and Rose exchanged a look, he couldn't be serious. Karkat was not a common name. Sure enough, as Dave wrote “yo dude my waiter here has the same name as you how wack is that shit” on his forearm, the same scrawl swipes itself across the arm of the server. 

“You've got to be fucking kidding me,” Karkat had been watching the scene unfold, mouth slightly agape. He'd figured it out immediately. “My soulmate is a fucking idiot.”

————————

And so it went. Kanaya and Karkat melded themselves into the friend group and though she was happy for her friends, she couldn't help but feel as though she was missing out on something big. So when her soulmate next wrote out a greeting, she was all too happy to hear from her.

AC: :33< *pounces on GG and licks the top of her head to help groom and relax her!!* 

GG: *barks playfully and rolls onto back!!* 

AC: :33< *bats paw and tries to capture GG’s wagging tail!* 

GG: *chases own tail and lays down next to AC contentedly!* 

AC: :33< *nudges GG with nose as if to inquire how her week has been!* 

GG: oh! its been awful :( 

GG: oh oops! i mean, *whines pitifully to show that shes had a ruff week!* 

AC: :33< oh no! what happened?? 

AC: :33< oops! I mean 

AC: :33< no nevermind, I want to know what's wrong! are you okay?? 

GG: yeah! its dumb really, just 

GG: two of my best friends found their soulmates this week! and im happy for them i really am, just 

AC: :33< you feel like youre missing out? 

GG: exactly! i know we agreed to let the meetup happen naturally, and i still want that, i just feel like im doing nothing to get closer to you :( 

AC: :33< I know what you mean :( 

AC: :33< two of my good friends found their soulmates this week too, and that's pawesome for them! but 

AC: :33< I want to meet you :’3 

GG: maybe we could have a code? 

AC: :33< ooooh *perks up ears, intrigued* 

AC: :33< what kind of code?? 

GG: you got that job at the coffee shop right?? 

AC: :33< yep! why do you ask? 

GG: well, i was thinking that every time I go to a coffee shop i could order something in code, something we made up, you know? 

GG: and then you could respond in code too!! that way we can still feel like we’re looking for each other, and if we do find each other it will be a surprise!! 

AC: :33< oooh!!! I like that!! That's purrrrfect!! 

GG: hehe :) 

GG: and we could change it every month or something! 

AC: :33< I like that!! 

AC: :33< when you come in you should order something silly, like a puppy dog mocha with pumpkin syrup and three million sugar cubes :3 

GG: hehe okay! 

AC: :33< then what should I say? 

GG: hmmm 

GG: you should say 

GG: we don't have that, but I could offer you a catpuccino with extra marshmallow foam and and snausage sprinkles! 

AC: :33< ewww h33h33! Snausages???

And so it went. Jade felt like she was actually doing something to find her soulmate instead of just sitting around watching her friends find their happily ever afters. 

It had been a few months since she and AC had made their coffee pact, Jade had had to switch to buying hot chocolate or decaf tea whenever she went because she had gotten sick of coffee. She'd also been going for coffee a few times a day, so excited to try out her new code and see if any of the female baristas would give a knowing smile and finish the bit. But they never did. So Jade had switched drinks, and cut down to only hitting up shops two or three times a week at most. Today was one of those days. Rose was meeting Kanaya at one of the smaller shops and Jade had elected to go with. 

“You ready?” Rose asked as she pulled a shirt over her head and checked her lipstick in the mirror. 

“Ummm,” Jade checked her bag, she had the slip of paper with this month’s code written on it somewhere. She saw it sticking out from one of the accordion folds and held it up triumphantly. “Got it! Ready when you are!”

Rose gave a small grin. “Oh? What is it this month?”

“This month,” Jade scanned her eyes over the paper. “I'll be ordering a ‘Frosted Flurry Frapurrrchino’.”

Rose quirked a brow, amused. “Fascinating. Your drink orders have gotten a touch more realistic sounding, haven't they.”

“Well, you know,” Jade gestured vaguely as they stepped into the hall outside their room and headed for the stairs. “I ended up getting some pretty weird looks from the more outlandish ones, so AC and I agreed to dial it down a bit. It's mostly just for fun anyways, I mean, what are the odds I walk into a coffee shop on campus and she's there?”

“I wouldn't be so sure,” Rose shrugged and blinked in the sudden light as they stepped outside. “I confess I thought much the same way prior to my run in with Kanaya, it could be more plausible than you think.”

“Oh yeah! Hey, you never told me exactly how you guys met, what was that even like?”

Rose smiled in spite of herself. “It was rather anticlimactic, truly.”

Jade grinned and bumped shoulders as they walked. “Oh come onnnn, spill! You know you want to.”

“I suppose,” Rose drawled, but hardly looked bothered. “I was in the library-”

“Looking at H.P. Lovecraft?”

“But of course. As I was carrying my choices to the front desk, a rather dour looking middle-aged white woman informed me, rather rudely I might add, that no god-fearing, ladylike, proper young women would ever read such works of the devil if she wanted to find a good husband.”

“And you took that well I guess!!” 

Rose positively beamed at the memory. “I didn't have to do anything. A lovely young Indian woman who had overheard stepped in and very politely told the woman that the only work of the devil in this room was her choice of fashion. And possibly her hairstyle.”

Jade's eyes widened. “No! She said that to her face?”

“Indeed. And to prove that I wasn't quite in the market for a good, god-fearing husband, I rather ostentatiously planted a kiss on the young woman’s lips, fully intending to apologize afterwards and explain that I had a soulmate.”

“Wait, so how did you figure out it was her?”

“She figured it out, actually. I think she suspected from the moment she walked over, as she saw the books I had with me. Granted, I'm sure there are plenty of people who share the same taste in literature as myself, but she must have had a strong sense of intuition. After the other woman stormed away, I began to apologize, but she merely smiled and drew a heart on her arm. When I felt it show up on mine, well. I was...fairly ecstatic.”

“I can imagine!” Jade laughed. “I thought you said it was anticlimactic? That sounds amazing! I hope my first meeting is as romantic as that!”

Rose looked up at as they neared the coffee shop. “It was definitely an experience. But look, here we are. I've never been here before, have you, in your endless quest?”

Jade stepped in and held the door open for Rose. “Nope! Or maybe just once, I don't make it to this part of campus very much, my classes are all on the other end.”

“Well,” Rose suddenly peeked up and waved toward one of the booths in the back where Kanaya was seated. “Perhaps today will be the day.”

Jade smiled ruefully. “I guess.”

God, she wished. Although, Rose had a point, she'd never been to this particular shop before. Maybe. 

“I'm going to go sit, I think Kanaya already placed my order for me. Meet us there when you're ready?” Rose asked. 

“Yep!” Jade smiled. “I'll be right over.”

As Rose walked away, Jade turned her focus to the barista currently working the cash register. She was definitely Asian, though Jade wasn't able to discern whether she was Korean like AC, or any number of the various countries that would fit under the wide umbrella. But, she considered Rose’s reassurances that her SM might be closer than she thought. Maybe. 

She approached the counter, excitement and anxiety bubbling in her chest like a natural spring. She took note of the barista’s name tag, _Aradia. Could that be the ‘A’ in AC??_

“Hi!” The barista greeted cheerfully. “What can I get you?”

“Um,” Jade groped around in her bag, suddenly nervous, her hands shaking. “Hold on I have it here somewhere. Um. Can I get an uhhh ‘Frosted Flurry Frapurrrchino’?”

The barista blinked. “Sorry? I don't think we carry that, it sounds seasonal maybe?”

Jade swallowed down the bitter taste of disappointment. She didn't know why she'd gotten her hopes up so high. “Oh gosh, my bad, I'm so sorry! I'll just get some hot chocolate if that's alright.”

“Yeah no problem!” The barista smiled and spun away to get the drink. 

Well. Maybe next time. Jade had to allow herself to hope, that much at least she could have. 

They didn't have long conversations or roleplaying sessions every day, or even every week. They were both busy, after all. But without fail, every day Jade's arms would be littered with hearts and little cat faces. Cheerful “good mornings!!” greeted her before noon, and contented “sweet dreams!!” followed by the desire to yawn scrawled itself across her skin anywhere from ten to midnight, occasionally into the wee hours of morning. On nights she knew her soulmate was working late, she would draw smiley faces and plants and dogs chasing their tails, always careful to imbue them with a sense of encouragement and support. If she and her soulmate couldn't be there for each other in person then they would do their absolute best to act like it. 

And yet. 

She wanted to run her fingers through her soulmate’s hair, she wanted to laugh with her, cry with her, get cats and dogs and live in chaos but chaos where they were together. She wanted to lead her soulmate through her corner of the greenhouse. Show her the pumpkins and other plants she'd been tenderly caring for, show her how she sang for them and even played her flute if she was alone. She wanted to hold her hand, stay up late with her, hug her, help her when she was feeling sad. She had so much love, so much emotion bursting at the seams, all for this girl she'd never met but that she already loved with her whole heart. The sweetest person she'd never met. 

It was towards the end of her freshman year before she went back to the little coffeehouse, at Karkat’s insistence, of all things. 

“Bro, you don't even like coffee,” Dave protested with a yawn. “Plus it's like, shit o’clock in the morning.”

“It's eight in the morning, dipshit,” Karkat rolled his eyes. “And I'm probably just going to get tea. But my friend is working there today and I need to drop off a play she's been bugging me to order for her.”

“Okayyy,” Dave groaned and lifted his shades slightly to rub his eyes. “But, and no offense Jade, why are you coming with us?”

Jade smiled. “Well if you don't want me along, you could just say so, dummy! Poor, little old me, I'll wander sadly away, my tears will fill an ocean.”

“Which ocean?” Dave grinned, and Karkat shoved him. “I'm kidding! I'm kidding. But forreal, is this about your soulmate coffee search thing?”

“Yeah!” Jade rubbed her arms in the morning chill, glad she'd worn long pants and a sweater. “I don't go to this coffee shop much so whenever I hear people are heading out this way I try to tag along.”

Karkat pushed the door open and a bell hanging from the doorframe jingled. Jade looked expectantly at the counter. The same girl from last time was there, Aradia, Jade thought, along with a shorter Asian-American girl wearing a blue beanie with cat ears. Jade recognized her from one of her philosophy classes, she'd had some fun insight but the two had never talked. At the bell, she looked up and waved enthusiastically to Karkat. 

“Hey Karkitty!” She greeted. “Didja bring me that book finally?”

“That's the only reason I'm out here in this un-fucking-seasonably freezing Spring bullshit,” Karkat grumbled and pulled a small green book from his bag to pass over the counter. 

“Oh!” Jade gasped when she recognized the book, it was a short play she'd loved when she was younger. “Is that _Ondine_?”

The girl visibly brightened. “Yeah! You know it?”

“Know it? I love it! My Grandpa used to read me that play every night when I was little,” Jade said. “I would make him skip the end though, it was too sad.”

“Same!” The girl laughed. “I'm Nepeta. I think we have a philosophy class together?”

Before Jade could respond, Karkat cleared his throat. “If I don't get some type of caffeinated tea in me right this second, I'm going to flip my shit off the deep end.”

“Hey, Nep?” Aradia called as she stepped out of the back room. “Can you see if we have any more of that raspberry syrup? It's not in the usual spot.”

“Sure!” Nepeta waved and skipped off. “Nice meeting you!”

Aradia stepped up to the counter and wipes her hands on a towel. “What can I get you guys?”

“I want the tea with the most caffeine possible,” Karkat said. 

“You got apple juice?” Dave asked. 

“Can I get uhhhh,” Jade pulled out the slip of paper from her sweater pocket. “‘Pearly Pumpkin Affogato’?”

Aradia wrinkled her nose. “Sorry I don't think I've ever heard of that? Is that an autumn drink or something?”

“No,” Jade sighed. “I'll just get some hot chocolate.” 

Back in their booth, Dave put his head down and went back to sleep while Karkat and Jade sipped their drinks. 

“She was nice,” Jade offered. 

Karkat made an agreeable noise. “She's basically my sister. Our parents are...close.” 

“Complicated?” 

“Definitely.”

“I know what that's like,” Jade said. “My Grandpa was a pretty weird guy!”

“Who read you obscure, 19th century literature before bed? I fucking believe it.”

“The original novella was 19th century, but the play is 20th,” Jade corrected. “Silly, a romance literature expert like yourself should know better!”

“Fuck me sideways.”

“Karkitty please don't swear in front of me? I'm a child _of god_ ,” Nepeta swooped in with a grin. “Mind if I sit?”

“Sure!” Jade grinned and scooted over to make room as Nepeta plopped down. 

“Nepeta I once heard you use the fuck word so creatively, even Karkles here was speechless,” Dave spoke up as he raised his head with a yawn. “You're a child of god like I'm a heterosexual.”

“You're drooling, fuckface,” Karkat smacked Dave’s arm, who merely shrugged and went back to sleep. He turned to Nepeta. “You on break?”

“Yup!” She grinned, and Jade felt her heart rose into her throat as she noticed twin dimples grace the smaller girl's cheeks. “I've got thirty minutes and who better to spend it with than my dearest, bestest friend slash brother in the whole wide world?”

Karkat raised a brow. “Meulin told you mom sent cookies, didn't she?”

Nepeta waggled her brows. “Maaaybe?”

“Well she already made me promise to give you half so it's not like I have a choice.”

“Have I ever told you how much I love you, Karkitten?”

“At least five times a day, Nep.”

Nepeta shot Jade a sly smile, as if to include her in on some inside joke. To say, _hey, I'm ribbing on our mutual friend here pretty hard, but don't worry. I haven't forgotten about you._ It sent involuntary butterflies through Jade’s stomach and she returned a shy smile as she internally worked to clamp down the swirling in her chest. _What was happening??_

“So,” Nepeta stole a sip of Karkat’s tea and batted her lashes in faux innocence. “Karkitty. Tell me about your fur-end here.”

That was funny, Jade thought, Nepeta made cat puns just like-

Oh. 

Oh _shit_. 

Was that why she was looking at Jade like that?

Did she know?

Was it her?

Jade’s head was spinning. The butterflies in her stomach, the cat puns, she worked in a coffee shop, everything added up and yet Jade couldn't wrap her head around the possibility that this adorable, funny girl sitting next to her could be the girl that had been on the opposite end of the crazy, spiritual connection that she'd been experiencing for years. Was it possible?

“She's a fucking furry, figures you'd like her,” Karkat rolled his eyes. 

Jade kicked him under the table and shot him a blinding smile. 

“Ow! Fuck, I'm _kidding_ ,” he protested, rubbing his shin. “Jade is uh, amazing and awesome and...punctual?”

“Punctual?” Jade wrinkled her nose up.

“I feel very fucking pressured right now, my answers aren't going to be up to fucking par.”

“Speaking of punctuality,” Nepeta checked her watch, Jade noticed it was the same blue as her hat and the face was a collection of cartoon cats. “I should probably get back to work!”

“Yeah, while you're at it you wanna get me a new tea?” Karkat frowned. “You drank like, fucking half of mine.”

“Sure thing, Karkitten!” Nepeta jumped up. “I can probably hook you guys up with some free drinks. Jade, you want anything?”

The question felt loaded, or maybe it was just Jade’s imagination. Either way, her throat felt suddenly dry. “Um,” she started. “Can I...can I get a ‘Pearly Pumpkin Affogato’?”

She waited. 

“Um. Lemme see what I can do?” Nepeta spun around before Jade could get a good look at her expression. Her heart sank. Was that all? Had she misread the entire situation?

She groaned and leaned back in the booth. She'd probably made an idiot of herself, and now Nepeta wouldn't even want to be friends and-

“Here you go!” Nepeta slid Karkat’s tea across the table, then placed a mug in front of Jade as she plopped down next to her in the booth. “And, um,” she looked away shyly. “We...we didn't have what you ordered, so I got you a ‘Cat-ffé Ameri-paw-no’, um. But it's actually just hot chocolate because-”

“Because I mentioned that I was sick of coffee,” Jade could barely keep the wide grin from her face. “And you remembered?”

“Of course!” Nepeta laughed. “When you don't know anything about your soulmate, the details don't exactly slip through the cracks!”

"How did you know?"

"Aradia mentioned that you always ordered weird stuff while I was looking through the back and-"

“Am I missing something?” Karkat asked, a look of confusion settling on his face. “I thought you guys just met- oh fuck me right in the ass. Of fucking course both of your goddamn furry asses would be soulmates, honestly kill me.”

The girls laughed, and Jade beamed as Nepeta dug back in to picking on Karkat. She had finally, finally found her and she couldn't believe how amazing her soulmate actually was in person. She was all Jade’s, and Jade was all hers, for now and forever.

Later that night, Jade felt a familiar tingling on her forearm and a rush of comfort coursed through her body. With a yawn, she leaned up and flicked on her desk lamp to see what Nepeta had written. It was a picture. Jade smiled. 

Their journey to find each other ended just the way it started, Nepeta had drawn a cat. 

Jade drew a dog, then a heart. 

Neither girl fell back asleep until the early morning rays shone through their respective windows. 

They wouldn't have had it any other way.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr @ectoflowermaid !!


End file.
